Race No. 13
Miller Lite 200
Mid Ohio Sports Car Course
Lexington, OhioAugust 7-9, 1998
Saturday Quotes from Mid Ohio:| MARK BLUNDELL | PARTICK CARPENTIER | DARIO FRANCHITTI |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | BRYAN HERTA | MICHEL JOURDAIN |
| TONY KANAAN | GREG MOORE | PAUL TRACY |
| JIMMY VASSER | BARRY GREEN |
 | Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Qualified: 3rd |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| Obviously, a lot happened at the end [of the session]. It was a pretty good day overall. I got a good lap in on the first set of tires, and I had a couple of good laps teed up at the end, but I'd make a mistake and lose them. Obviously, I knew what was going on. The guys were talking to me on the radio. I gave it everything I had, we just didn't get it done today. [On his last lap spin] I felt it was coming for about three and a half laps. I'm not happy about it at all, but you've still got to put it into perspective. We're third on the grid and we were quickest in practice. The change we made didn't work, but I still feel good about the car and I still feel good about the weekend. It's still better to be on the pole. You get a point, and the Marlboro bonus award isn't small change. That's worth going for, too. If it rains, it's probably bad for us. We're starting toward the front and we have a good car in the dry. I would prefer it to be dry, but if it does rain, it's the same for everybody. | |
 | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Qualified: 2nd |
| JIMMY VASSER | |
| This morning we made changes to the race car that put us in a good direction. The car was pretty good throughout qualifying, then we made a front damper adjustment that put us in the right direction. I'm pretty happy to be on the front row. I would have liked to have a shot at that Marlboro money that Dario's going to get another shot at. It seems like the three of us are the guys who get most of the shots at that. Bryan and I will make sure tomorrow that he doesn't get it (laughing). Right Bryan? | |
 | Hollywood Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 4th |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| That was a great lap. The car was capable of a 1:06.4, but I pulled a 1:06 flat out of thin air. I put the car into a drift going into turn 1 and carried it all the way through the turn. When you get a turn that right, it gives you a lot of satisfaction. I looked at the dash and saw I was 0.1 second faster than my best time just in that turn, so i didn't look again and just concentrated on the road. We lost about half an hour on Friday, but the guys did a great job to have the spare ready to go. My engineers Andy [Brown] and Roy [McCauley] are really on the pace this weekend. We've made the car better every time we go on track. The championship is out of reach, but it's nice to have the confidence to go into the rest of the season knowing we can run as well as we did last year. | |
 | PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 8th |
| MARK BLUNDELL | |
| I think we are going into tomorrow's race with a very good race car. I'm a bit disappointed in our qualifying result because I think we could have done better than the result showed. Eighth place isn't a consolation. We'll try and make some things better in the warmup tomorow and get a good race in. The guys are doing a great job this weekend and we're all hungry for a visit to the podium. | |
 | Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Reynard Ford Qualified: 22nd |
| MICHEL JOURDAIN | |
| The car still pushed in Turn 3 and also it had less grip all the way down. Unfortunately, the last red flag of my group was displayed on my second lap with fresh tires and when I went out I just had time for one warm-up lap and one hot lap and I made a mistake during my last lap entering the main straight. | |
 | LCI International Tasman Motorsports Group LCI Reynard Honda Qualified: 18th |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| We made a lot of improvement but running in the slow session, I had a lot of traffic. I was blocked on my first set of tires. On my second set, we had a red flag three minutes from the end and I only had one lap. I believe we could have done a little bit better, maybe top 12. The setup has improved practice after practice but when you get traffic, it's just one of those unlucky things. We didn't have luck today so maybe we will have a lot for tomorrow. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified: 1st |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| We knew the lap was there. The Team KOOL Green guys have been working really hard all weekend. It was just a matter of putting it all together on one lap. It's a very difficult track where the car is good in some corners and not so good in others. But we did it. Now we've just got to get ready for the race tomorrow. It's a different setup for the race. We fixed our brake problem. We spent a lot of time at Elkhart Lake testing the brakes and working on the problem we had in Toronto. The money (pole award) is still up for grabs, but I've talked to all the guys and we just want to get that first victory, then a second. We were getting progressively quicker through the whole session, and we were able to make it happen on the last lap. I didn't really think we had the answer, because Bryan [Herta] had been pretty quick here, but we were able to put two good laps together and that was good enough. From every race you learn something. What you realize is that you have to hit everything right to win a race. It [the pole] makes my job a little bit easier because I'm starting at the front. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified: 21st |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| The setups on these cars are very delicate and the comfort zone is very narrow. And we never got comfortable. Basically, I've been battling an understeer problem all weekend. | |
 | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 9th |
| PATRICK CARPENTIER | |
| That was for the pole. That was an amazing lap; really, really fast. I got excited and I said, ‘I’m not lifting [off the gas].’ Going into corner 7, the car carried up and over the hill, but I wasn’t going to lift. I took the corner too fast and the car got a little loose and I missed the apex. I went into the grass and ended up in the gravel trap and did a little damage to the rear wing. The Blue Crew gave me a perfect car. Tomorrow we’re going for the win. | |
 | Forsythe Player's-Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified: 6th |
| GREG MOORE | |
| I think we can win this one. The thought did cross my mind of the big jackpot, $410,000, for the Marlboro Pole Award. It seems easy - qualify on the pole, win the race, and you win the jackpot. Oh well. But considering where we’ve qualified on road courses this season, I’d say we’re pretty happy. If it’s hot like this tomorrow, I think you’ll see not only cars fading but people. And if it rains, it will be a crapshoot because no one’s tested on this track in the rain. | |
 | Team Kool Green Team manager |
| BARRY GREEN | |
| [On Dario winning the pole] A brilliant effort. I was very impressed with the laps he put together this morning on full tanks. That made me feel good about the chances of Dario improving his position in qualifying. He did two fast laps. He got the pole with the first but then went quicker, backing it up with an even faster lap. He said to me just before he left the pits on his last run 'I think we're looking good'. Anytime Dario Franchitti says that you can be sure he's pretty confident. He did a great job. [On Paul's qualifying position] Paul's got a lot of work to do tomorrow. If I've got to start from the 21st position, the one driver I'd like to have in my car is Paul Tracy. I'm a little confused about Paul's situation. To be first and 21st is a little confusing. But we got off on the wrong foot at the start of the weekend and dug ourselves a hole as a group and never recovered as a group. | |